Pilots must never waste any time.
When expert pilots fly, they are doing something even when the workload is low. They may have only been holding an altitude and tracking a VOR radial, but they are always thinking and doing something. During these times the pilots should play little mind games. They should play “What-if”. Ask yourself as you fly along, “What if I started to get a rough-running engine, what would I do?”. Are there airports nearby that I could divert to?. Are there fields below I could land in?”. The engine will probably not run rough and the flight will probably continue on without any problems, but asking “what-if” makes you think of a contingency plan just in case. Have you ever heard the saying “Always leave yourself an out”?. Leaving yourself an “out” means having a backup plan. You should switch to the backup plan anytime the first plan does not seem like a good idea anymore. Playing “what-if” forces you to think up a backup plan.
What if I get to the MDA and cannot see the runway? What if I am told to switch frequencies by ATC but cannot get anyone to answer on the new frequency? What if my approach clearance gets canceled right here and I am asked to do a holding pattern? What if I start picking ice at this altitude? Each of these “what-if” questions when asked would force the pilot to answer with a contingency plan. Someday one of your “what-if” questions might come true, but because you have asked what if and prepared a response you have a ready-to-go contingency plan.
You will quickly decide to switch plans, solve problems, and move on to the next “what-if”.

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When your fuel is low and the weather is turning to crap, is this the time you want to be on board with a minimum-standards type of pilot? This is clearly a precondition to unsafe flying. But it happens every day. Some people are content to just get by. And the rules allow them to do just that. But should the rules raise the minimum standards of intelligent people? Why don’t more pilots strive to be the best they can be? What I mean is, pilots by their very nature are very competitive, not only with other pilots, but especially with themselves. Every heading, altitude, and airspeed is a challenge to be conquered to most pilots. True pilots are in competition with the unseen and difficult-to-measure thing called proficiency, and that requires that every flight be prepared for as an Olympic event. And then there are the others-that small fraction of pilots who, are just too self-important to be bothered with the small things of life, like listening to an instrument clearance or being on his assigned altitude. These are the people who skew the statistics and make pilot errors the dirty word we think it to be.
The second half of the preconditions for unsafe flight operations revolves around pilots who, for one reason or another, choose to be either nonchalant or downright negligent concerning their fitness for the particular flight. This may be something as simple as self-medicating oneself for the symptoms of the common cold. The side-effects of these medications on certain people can be serious.
Another area of a pilot’s training that seems to be overlooked is the area of diet and fitness for flight. Piloting an aircraft through both boring and dangerous situations alike requires a sharp mind and quick reflexes that are only brought about with adequate rest, diet, and dedication to the physical and mental self.
Physical or mental fatigue can be very deceptive. It can sneak up on anyone at anytime, and it’s frequently deadly.
Possibly the most sinister preconditions leading to the occurrence of many pilot errors is the tendency for pilots to develop poor habits. These bad habits are either allowed to fester from the beginning of flight training or the kind that sneak in from the sameness of an operation, or unconscious cutting of corners. I have witnessed an applicant for one license visibly deficient in the basic flight techniques of straight and level flight. And bad habits do not stop there… just think of all those pilots that seem to believe the rudder are placed within the aircraft as foot rests.Bad habits and inadequate training are the prelude to human error!

Unsafe flight procedures can be directly linked about 80 percent of all aviation accidents. However, focusing on the unsafe procedures is like focusing on a fever without understanding the underlying disease causing the fever. Therefore accidents investigators must dig more deeply into why the unsafe procedure took place to begin with. If the casual factors preceding the unsafe procedures can be discovered, then perhaps we can begin to make a dent in the process of the elimination of pilot errors.
Two major subdivisions of unsafe pilot procedures have been brought forth. The first, substandard conditions of the pilot, either physical or mental, must be reviewed. And second, we must look at the unsafe or substandard practices the pilot chooses to commit and why.
The mental preparation of the pilot is critical for the safe conduct of the planned flight, without this, any flight is a potential danger; complacency, haste, distractions, get-there-itis, loss of situational awareness, and mental fatigue are the major pitfalls.
Think how many times you have done something stupid when in a hurry or distracted from the task at hand. It is easy to fall into a pattern of having done something a thousand times, so why should it go differently this time? Perhaps it shouldn’t, but reality is if I am not paying attention to my task, the chance of it ending other than successfully is increased exponentially.
Too many pilots of all types are satisfied thinking close is good enough. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times. “Well, all I have to do to pass is to meet minimum standards, right? That’s right. That’s all you have to do to pass. But at what level do you have to perform to live? That’s the real question!(to be continued)

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Finally, the one common denominator that weaves itself to through the fiber of all humans, especially pilots. I’m talking about ego. A pilot’s ego, as you know, is only slightly smaller than pi times his headset size. Egoistically based decisions are both wide and varied, but share one major commonality: Most ego-influenced decisions are going to be bad decisions. For instance, if the final piece of a go/no-go decision is ego-based, it is a wrong decision simply for the method used to make the decision. Or perhaps a pilot forgoes a go-around for fear they will be thought less for a pilot for knuckling under to a bad approach. And it happens more than we will ever know. No one wants to be seen as inferior or of less stature than their peers, but I’ll let you in on a fact: the good pilots-the ones who really are the aces of the base- never ever let their egos fly them into a situation that their skill cannot get them into a situation that their skill cannot get them out of. And therein lies the difference between the old pilot and the bold pilot. The old pilot knows with absolute certainty that the only thing that is for certain is uncertainty. And if there is any doubt as to the successful end of a given task or mission, the old pilot will stand down, go-around, execute a 180, or whatever it takes to get the hell out of there and live to fly again.
The “deliberate mistakes” (violations of the regulations) is another matter entirely. This is the willful departure from the rules for the sake of time, money, convenience, or all of the above. All are involved controllers mechanics, operators. Knowingly departing from the rules is not that rare in aviation, and this is not good since this type of error is very often fatal!
There are two types of pilots who violate the rules: those who set out to do it and really don’t give a rip for the rules to begin with. That habitual violator of the rules is not the person I’m talking to here. They, like thieves, will not repent merely because David says it’s a bad idea. They plan explicitly to brake the rules and there-fore don’t usually cause an accident that would draw attention to themselves. In other words, these are well-planned violations of the rules.
The others are more insidious and therefore more dangerous to self. They tend to operate in the gray area of the rules, bending them, but usually not destroying the rule itself, These guys usually push their limits, whether it be related to weather, fuel, or whatever until they finally break out into one final act of ultimate stupidity and kill themselves. They sneak closer and closer to their, or their aircraft’s limits, often losing sight of where those limits are until it is too late. Like getting closer and closer to the edge of a cliff. Pretty soon you get comfortable or complacent and that’s when the shelf gives way and you go down with the rocks. In aviation, this happens with dreadful regularity. If I had to sum the unspoken cause for the majority of the pilot-error-induced accidents and incidents, it would be one word: complacency. Complacency, can lull you into a false sense of security and draw you closer and closer to the edge of safe operating practices, and then, usually when things look their best, something will go terribly wrong and it may be too late to save it.Stay sharp. Stay focused. Stay alive!!